Our happiness in life depends on many things. Love, work, friends and, of course, money. According to modern happiness research, people who earn more are happier. But happiness also depends on sleep.
Someone who sleeps an average of 7 instead of 6 hours night after night is as much happier as if he earned $90,000 more, i.e. $120,000 per year instead of $30,000. Instead of waiting for such a salary increase, which is rather rare, one should deal with the topic "sleep".
Basis
One third of life
We spend almost a third of our lives in bed. But many people feel anything but comfortable in their resting place. One third of the population wakes up in the morning battered and tired. Half of them suffer from a sleep disorder that requires treatment. Older people are affected more often than young people.
Yet sleep disorders are often not recognized. On the one hand, because these complaints have long been the poor relation of medicine, and on the other hand, because those affected know little about their own sleep. And finally, because many people accept non-restorative slumber as God-given.
Poor sleep has consequences. Not only for the workplace, family, partnership and sexuality. The risk of illness increases: high blood pressure, heart attacks and strokes are more likely, and the risk of accidents at home, at work and on the road is five times higher. One in four fatal traffic accidents is caused by microsleep.
Why do we actually sleep?
The question sounds naïve, if not downright stupid! Why do we sleep? Everybody knows it! Because we get tired, no longer efficient and obnoxious!
But can we do without it? Some fish seem to be able to! Sharks, for example, don't sleep a wink day or night. They are constantly on the move. In the meantime they slow down a bit, but they probably don't know sleep in our sense.
It's the same with insects. Rest and activity phases alternate, without deep slumber being observed.
Timer
So it is possible, at least theoretically, without sleep. But humans, like all mammals, cannot do without slumber. Why this is so is the subject of scientific research. The result is, we ultimately don't know!
There are only explanations why it could be so. It is of course banal that sleep is synchronized with (day) and night. At night we get tired and sleep, during the day it is the other way around. What else should we do at night, when we don't see anything anyway.
But it is not quite that simple. We do not only depend on daylight, but above all on our inner clock. It was only a few decades ago that this inner clock, called the zeitgeber, was discovered.
The day has 25 hours
Cave and bunker experiments led the way for this discovery. The question was actually simple. What happens when you put people in a situation where they have no way of orienting themselves in time. So no clock, no radio or television, no telephone, no contact of any kind with the environment. But above all, absolutely no information about the time of day.
For this purpose, volunteers were completely isolated from the outside world for weeks in underground rooms or caves. No sound from the environment penetrated here. There was only artificial lighting. Each of the test subjects could arrange their sleep as they wished.
The result was astonishing: The rhythm of life proved to be extremely stable. It followed a strict, regular sequence. But it was not a 24-hour rhythm, but a constant 25 hours. One hour too much!
One can now speculate whether this inner 25-hour rhythm is the reason for the chronic feeling of lack of time that plagues our time. But much more interesting is the question of how the 25-hour cycle is synchronized with the real day-night cycle.
Extensive research has been done on this as well. They showed that our internal timer is influenced from the outside. It is almost as if our inner clock is constantly being reset.
This happens completely unconsciously. In everyday life we are in a perfect 24-hour cycle and do not get the deeper longer cycle. It only jumps on in "emergencies" when there is a lack of appropriate external stimuli.
Who sets the internal clock?
The following factors set our clock particularly effectively:
- Light
- temperature
- Food intake
- Social contacts and activities
During a transcontinental flight, the conflict between the internal and external rhythms becomes abundantly clear. The timer says "night" abundantly clear, while in fact the sun shines from the blue sky.
Within a few days, the two rhythms synchronize again. This happens the faster, the stronger the above influencing factors become effective. In other words, if you get up early in the morning to enjoy the fresh air at your destination and change your meal times to the new time while still on the plane, the transition will be much easier.
Owls and larks
Not all people have a spontaneous rhythm of exactly 25 hours. Some approach 24 hours, while for others the spontaneous daily rhythm is 26 hours or longer. Those who have an innate 24-hour rhythm are driven out of bed in the morning, for them the early bird gets the worm! Contemporaries with a longer rhythm are quite different. They only get into top form in the evening and can't go to bed late enough.
In short, the two types are characterized as "larks" and "owls". "Larks" have an innate 24-hour rhythm. They cope wonderfully with the normal day. But they have a hard time adjusting to long-distance travel or night work. Staying out late is also not their cup of tea.
The hearts and brains of the "owls," on the other hand, beat in 26-hour cycles. Maintaining the bourgeois daily schedule is hard work for them. They need strong stimuli (early morning exercise, light) and a lot of discipline to maintain a regular daily routine.
Where does our clock tick?
The term "internal clock" or "timer" is not just a flowery euphemism. Our "master clock" exists for real. It is located deep in the brain, approximately where the optic nerves cross behind the eyes. However, there are countless other clocks, e.g. in the mucous membranes, which ensure that enzymes and hormones are produced at the right time. Possibly all cells are equipped with so-called clock genes.
Accordingly, most bodily processes run approximately in a 24-hour rhythm, which is called circadian rhythm (circa = approximately, this = day).
Sunlight perks us up!
The body's own hormone melatonin plays an important role in sleep regulation. As soon as the sun sets, its production starts and makes us feel tired. Conversely, bright light inhibits the production of the sleep hormone in the pineal gland. This makes us feel more alert.
Sleep regulation works best when the contrasts of day and night are pronounced, as is the case in the tropics. There, in the cradle of mankind, the regulatory system has probably developed.
During the day, the sun shines there with the power of 100,000 lux. At night, the brightness decreases to fractions of a lux (1 lux is the brightness of a candle at a distance of one meter).
On a winter day in temperate latitudes, it often gets no brighter than 3-4000 lux outdoors. In houses it looks even worse, there the illuminance is usually only 500 lux, and a "cozy" living room rarely has more than 100 lux. The wake-up stimulus of light is missing. Therefore, people are more tired in winter, and sleep disorders and depression become more likely.
What happens during sleep?
Undoubtedly, we cannot do without sleep, but exactly what function it has is ultimately unknown. Indeed, sleep deprivation for days on end by no means leads to death, as is sometimes said. After 5 or even 10 days without sleep we do not get sick but - tired! In addition, we become sensitive to pain, irritable and unable to concentrate.
But it remains a mystery why mammals take the risk of spending a larger part of the day in a largely defenseless state. This disadvantage must be counterbalanced by a developmental advantage, otherwise the "shark" model (always on the move!) would have prevailed.
But there are some theories. They say that during sleep we recover from processes that occur during wakefulness. For example, certain neurotransmitters (messenger substances in the brain) would regenerate. Furthermore, sleep is supposed to serve the processing of stimuli. During sleep, the impressions of the day should be sorted, i.e. important things should be stored, unimportant things deleted and emotionally processed. No wonder that many things can be better judged if one has slept on them for a night. The same applies to learning success: after a nap, what has been learned sticks better.
The latter function is mainly done in dreams. Probably the brain regenerates, grows and learns especially in this slumber phase. This is also supported by the fact that newborns, in whom the brain is developing at a rapid pace, spend around half of the time dreaming during sleep, whereas in the case of old people this is only the case in 5% of the night.
Sleep and EEG
Sleep research experienced a real breakthrough with the discovery of the EEG, the electroencephalogram. In 1928, the German psychiatrist Hans Berger found out that it was possible to record brain waves with appropriate devices. Now it quickly became clear that sleep is not just a "snapping off" of consciousness, but a highly active process in which different stages of sleep can be distinguished. These alternate regularly throughout the night.
Several sleep stages can be clearly delineated based on brain waves, eye movement and muscle tension. The brain wave pattern is especially important. Characteristic frequency patterns are designated by the first letters of the Greek alphabet.
Stages
Several sleep stages can be clearly delineated based on brain waves, eye movement, and muscle tension. Most important is the brain wave pattern. Characteristic frequency patterns are designated by the initial letters of the Greek alphabet.
Significance of the stages
Initially, especially REM sleep (Rapid Eye Movement) attracted the attention of researchers. When subjects were awakened during this stage, they reported having just dreamed. However, it soon became clear that people occasionally dream in the other phases as well.
Most important for recovery, however, are phases III and IV, known as deep sleep. This is where the body regenerates. The longer and more undisturbed deep sleep is, the fresher and more rested one feels. If these phases are shortened or missing completely, one feels tired and shattered in the morning!
However, a sleeper most often stays in sleep phases I and II. Despite this temporal dominance, their significance is still completely unclear.
The individual sleep stages are passed through in a fixed rhythm, resulting in a typical up and down. Each of these cycles lasts about 90 minutes. Three to four cycles are run through during the night, whereby the sleeper is awake for a short time several times, usually without noticing this. During this phase, the full bladder is registered and a trip to the toilet cannot be avoided. Towards morning, sleep becomes more superficial and dreaming increases.
Waking up at night is therefore completely normal - especially from adulthood onwards - and is related to our sleep architecture. We can only speculate about the meaning of sleep cycles.
The emergence from deep sleep is possibly a relic from human history. Here, humans oriented themselves according to whether danger was lurking, e.g. a lion was already prowling around the campfire.
When do we get tired?
Again, this is a seemingly banal question: When do we get tired? Everyone can answer this immediately. When we are awake for a long time! From this point of view, the longer we are awake, the more tired we should become. Up to a certain degree this is also true. But not completely!
Anyone who has "pulled an all-nighter" will find that, surprisingly, with the first rays of the morning, fatigue subsides. Actually, you are not really tired during the day, but rather a little exhilarated. It is only in the evening that one then urgently longs for the cozy bed.
Obviously, there are two different processes that regulate our tiredness. First, fatigue increases evenly the longer we are awake. It is almost as if a substance accumulates in the brain during the day, which is then broken down overnight. In fact, it used to be assumed that there was such a "sleeping substance" that accumulated somewhere in the head. It will probably not be as simple as that, but modern research does not yet know the cause in detail.
A second process takes place completely independently of this. Fatigue and wakefulness follow a strict (circadian) 24-hour rhythm. During the day we are awake, at night we are tired! Regardless of whether we have slept or not, we are simply switched to "awake" during the day and "tired" at night.
Two phase process
In reality, both processes permanently overlap and determine the degree of our wakefulness. We are drawn to bed when both rhythms demand sleep and, conversely, we feel most alert when the "sleep substance has been broken down" and our biological clock is set to "day."
But the rhythms can also work in opposite directions. This is the case, for example, with jet lag. After a flight across several time zones, the internal clock remains set to home time for many days. This is how the so-called "two-process model" explains why you are dog-tired at your destination, even though you have slept sufficiently beforehand. The body is still set to nighttime. In such cases, even coffee is of little help because - as described - the entire organization of the body is still in the resting phase.
Good sleep before midnight?
Immediately after falling asleep, the first deep sleep sets in. Since most people go to bed between 10:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m., they have in fact already had their first restful sleep cycle before midnight.
But of course, this has nothing to do with the witching hour. If someone does not regularly fall asleep until 2:00 a.m. and their alarm clock does not go off until late in the morning, then they will have their first restorative deep sleep phase between 2:00 and 3:30 a.m.. And it is just as restful as the one before midnight.
Is the full moon to blame?
Many things are to blame for poor sleep, but the full moon is not one of them. Numerous studies clearly prove this. However, superstition is understandable. If you don't sleep at night, you'll notice the bright moonlight on clear nights.
If the sky is overcast, far fewer people complain about the influence of the earth's satellite.
How much sleep is normal?
A healthy adult sleeps on average 7 hours and 15 minutes. It takes 15 minutes to fall asleep, and the alarm clock rings shortly before half past six. On weekends and vacations, it can be an hour more.
But if someone deviates from this statistical average, that's no cause for alarm. There is hardly a biological rhythm that varies as much in time as sleep.
Napoleon or Goethe?
Some people constantly need 10 to 12 hours of slumber, while few get by with 4 hours (!). Obviously, the basic need for sleep is genetically determined. Long and short sleepers can do little to change this need.
Both groups are equally efficient, as famous examples show. Napoleon and Winston Churchill are both said to have slept only 5 hours, although they took short naps during the day. The poet prince Goethe and Albert Einstein, on the other hand, regularly needed 10 hours.
Perhaps Goethe's pronounced need for sleep also had something to do with his not inconsiderable consumption of wine. The privy councilor is said to have drunk up to four bottles a day.
Baby or pensioner
Sleep changes in the course of life, both in quantity and quality. Newborns are not yet synchronized with the rhythm of the day, much to the chagrin of their parents. They sleep for 3-4 hours to then be awake for about an hour. In the course of the first year of life, the baby then learns to adjust to the night, and the first night slept through is a memorable event, especially for the mother.
However, the little earthling still needs two more sleep times in the morning and afternoon. These do not fall away until adolescence.
As the child enters retirement age, two changes occur. Everyone becomes a bit of a lark, i.e. getting up early and going to bed earlier is normal. In addition, the need for a midday nap, which can last an hour or even an hour and a half, comes up again.
If you rediscover the joys of the siesta now, don't be surprised if you don't get a full eight hours of sleep. After 6.5 hours at the latest, that's it. That's all the body needs. So if you go to bed early in the evening after a long nap, you shouldn't be surprised if the night ends around 4 or 5 o'clock. This is not a sleep disorder, but bad time management! In the highest age it can be that one would like to make also in the morning a nap. This is also normal and age-appropriate.
Quality change
The composition of sleep changes throughout life. Newborns and babies are dominated by REM phases (up to 50%) in which the brain develops and important learning processes take place. Deep sleep phases III and IV are also pronounced at over 20%.
The older a person gets, the more these parts of sleep decrease, and superficial phases I and II increase. In the very elderly, both REM and deep sleep are only about 5% of a night. The large proportion of sleep phases I and II has consequences. Sleep is more susceptible to disturbances, people wake up more frequently, and a full night's sleep is a rarity.
Diagnosis
100 shapes
This section deals with the question of how to detect sleep disorders. Again, this is only a seemingly simple problem. Whether someone has slept well or badly, he will know best in the morning!
Of course, no one will be able to tell whether they are refreshed and well rested or whether they have been tossing and turning all night. Also one remembers without any problems how often one had to go to the toilet during the night or whether one was disturbed by noises from outside.
But what is going on in the depths, how one's own "sleep architecture" is constructed, whether and how many deep sleep phases are present, how often one awakens unnoticed at night, and many other questions escape conscious perception.
Meanwhile, science knows about a hundred types of sleep disorders with completely different causes. However, they all end in the same feeling: I slept badly.
To find out the type of sleep disorders is not an end in itself. Depending on the diagnosis, the therapy of the sleep disorder turns out to be very different.
Epworth Sleepiness Scale
Questionnaires can be an initial diagnostic tool. There are countless elaborated instruments.
One of the shortest questionnaires is the Epworth Sleepiness Scale. It is not as reliable as more comprehensive questionnaires with dozens of questions, but it provides a fairly good initial assessment.
One answers each question by frequency of occurrence and notes the numerical value for that answer (0-3). At the end, all the numbers are added up.
If one has not actually just experienced a certain situation, then one should imagine it and consider how likely it would be to nod off.
Important: This test only gives an indication of sleep disorders. It does not replace a detailed sleep diagnosis!
You can find this online test with instant results here. Duration 1-minute.
Sleep diary
Another important tool is a sleep diary. Many correlations can be clarified in a simple way.
- How often do bad nights actually occur? - Which events of the past day influence night sleep? - Do more threatening appointments cast their shadows ahead? - How do medications, food, alcohol or cigarettes influence sleep?
Many of these questions can already be uncovered with the help of a diary.
Download sleep diary
Don't be too meticulous!
The sleep diary should be kept honestly, but not overly meticulous. For example, it is not necessary to write down sleep times to the minute.
After two weeks, you have enough material to see correlations:
Are there differences between the individual days or was every night completely the same? If there were differences, which events had the greatest influence on sleep? Which of these things can be influenced? Were there any surprisingly good nights? What could have been the reason for this? Etc.
Many doctors or clinics dealing with sleep disorders use such or similar diaries. They serve as an instrument to document the success of the therapy, especially if individual questions are graphically processed. In this way, the sleep diary can also facilitate the dialogue between doctor and patient.
Partner information
The person who sleeps in the same bed or room is extremely productive as a source of information. What does the partner observe about one's own sleep behavior? If he or she does not belong to the enviable group of people who sleep "unawakenably" through every night, he or she is likely to have made revealing observations.
Such observations can provide information about
- the duration of falling asleep- movements during falling asleep, e.g. leg movements- tossing or restlessness- snoring or obstructed nasal breathing- breathing pauses- nightmares- sleep drunkenness- nocturnal confusion- dependence of sleep on alcohol, pills, coffee, nicotine- teeth grinding
Physical diagnostics
Those who suffer from persistent sleep disorders should also undergo physical examination. There are countless diseases that affect sleep as accompanying symptoms. Therefore, a visit to the family doctor or even to a specialist is inevitable.
In addition to physical examinations, laboratory tests (e.g. thyroid hormones, blood sugar, kidney and liver values) and other technical examinations may be performed.
- Eye diseases
- Respiratory diseases
- Diseases of the brain
- Hormonal disorders
- Epilepsies
- Cardiovascular diseases
- Infectious diseases
- Chronic itching (allergies)
- Cancer diseases
- liver diseases
- gastrointestinal diseases
- kidney diseases
- pain conditions
- Depression
- Mania
- Schizophrenia
- Anxiety
- Eating disorders
- Dementia
Somnography
By taking a detailed history, supplemented by a physical examination, questionnaires and, if necessary, a discussion with the partner, the diagnosis can be made quite clearly in many cases.
Nevertheless, further technical examinations are often necessary to confirm or exclude a suspected diagnosis. In the meantime, there are countless examination techniques and devices. Some of them should be mentioned.
Ultimately, all technical examinations are concerned with the detection of physical changes during the night, which remain hidden to the sleeper. Initially, only a few parameters could be determined (e.g. pulse, respiration), but today a multitude of factors can be reliably determined. All measured variables together then reveal to the examining physician what actually happens during the time when we are caught up in our dreams.
- EEG (brain waves)
- ECG (heart currents)
- EOG (eye movement)
- EMG (muscle activity)
- Snoring sounds
- Air flow through nose and mouth
- Breathing activity with distinction of chest/belly breathing
- Pulse and oxygen saturation of the blood
- body position
- Video monitoring of the sleeper
In case of extended questions, these parameters can also be recorded:
- blood pressure
- body temperature
- Acid-base balance
- Movement of arms and legs
- cerebral blood flow
- Penile erection
- Pressure inside the esophagus
Not all measurements have to be taken immediately. This is not only a question of cost and effort, it is also relatively difficult to sleep when you are wired from head to toe.
Outpatient somnography
There are numerous physicians, such as those labeled "sleep medicine," who give their patients small devices to take home for one or more nights to measure sleep patterns in familiar surroundings. There are different types of devices, each of which can register different readings.
The least disturbing is to derive a nocturnal EEG (electroencephalogram). To do this, it is sufficient to attach electrodes to the forehead and record the data in a small box that can be conveniently placed under the pillow. The next morning, the data is evaluated in the doctor's office as a so-called hypnogram, i.e. the individual sleep phases and possible disturbances become apparent.
If a movement disorder of the legs is suspected (restless legs syndrome), there are also simple devices with which the restlessness of the legs can be reliably measured.
Very simple is an orienting measurement of the snoring, if a bed neighbor should not have registered this already sorrowfully. For this purpose, a small measuring sensor has recently been developed, which is applied to the upper lip and monitors sleep sounds during the night. In the morning, a glance at a digital display (similar to a clinical thermometer) is sufficient to read off how pronounced the noise was.
The recording of other breathing disorders, especially breathing pauses (apnea), is much more complex. In this not uncommon severe sleep disorder, breathing stops completely for seconds to minutes, only to start again spontaneously. Affected persons often feel completely shattered in the morning without having the slightest idea what this could be due to.
In order to register the breathing stops (themselves), a whole series of variables must already be recorded: Airflow, breath sounds, chest and abdominal movement, blood oxygen saturation, body position, ECG and often others. This can be done on an outpatient basis, but requires greater cooperation from the patient and an introduction to the operation of the equipment.
Inpatient somnography
Without any doubt, inpatient sleep examination is the most accurate way to detect sleep disorders. Quite a few diagnoses made after outpatient examinations need to be reconsidered after a night or two in a sleep laboratory.
A sleep lab consists of a normal hospital room and a separate technical room containing countless pieces of equipment and monitoring staff.
The patient's bed is monitored by video throughout the night and every movement is recorded. With a multitude of cables and sensors, all of the variables described above can be captured and recorded. This provides a complete picture of the entire sleep architecture. Diagnostics in the sleep laboratory can thus confirm or revise suspected diagnoses.
Generally, the stay lasts two nights, with the first night serving to get used to the strange environment.
Surprisingly, sleep is less disturbed by the equipment than one might expect. Most patients sleep just as well - or rather poorly - in the lab as they do at home.
Disease patterns
Scientifically, about a hundred different forms of sleep disorders are distinguished today. The most important ones will be presented here. The differentiation into so many clinical pictures makes sense, since depending on the diagnosis different therapeutic ways result.
In the following section, the most common clinical pictures are described. The therapy will only be discussed if it differs from the general therapy guidelines, which then follow in the next sections.
Therapy
Insomnia and sleeping pills, these two things belonged together for decades as a matter of course. Anyone who suffered from insomnia was prescribed medication, perhaps coupled with the advice not to take it too often.
The one-sided therapy was mainly based on a lack of knowledge. Little was known about what happens in people between evening and morning.
It was not until modern sleep research that it became clear what a wealth of processes take place during sleep, and what highly diverse disorders can be behind the statement "bad sleep".
Sleep Hygienics
Sleep is a child of freedom, just like love, for example. Neither can be forced. It is one of the paradoxes that the more you wish for sleep, the harder it comes.
This realization is especially difficult for people who are used to solving their life tasks through will, discipline and mastery. For many problems, these qualities are not to be underestimated. For others, however, they are not. Sleep is one of them.
Keep cool!
Oddly enough, the first and most important exercise for a healthy sleep is not to want it badly, let alone to force it!
Knowledge of scientifically well-supported facts helps here. One night without sleep is by no means a disaster. Even several or even many nights without sleep do not lead to health damage.
Also, performance does not decrease significantly after a single sleepless night, since the internal clock switches to "awake" in the morning even without a night's rest. On the contrary, there are even positive effects that are used therapeutically in the treatment of depression. The lack of a good night's rest has a "scratching up", activating effect. This is why some forms of depression are successfully treated with complete sleep deprivation once or twice a week (!).
In a nutshell!
The next step is to throw overboard the belief in old wives' tales. Especially the belief that only long sleep means rest. It is much better to sleep short and well than to toss and turn endlessly in bed! In the same way, going to bed early does not mean falling asleep early. So if you go to bed earlier and earlier because you have trouble falling asleep, in order to find sleep at least after hours, you are not doing yourself any favors. The opposite would be more correct.
Also into the range of the myths belongs the conviction to have to sleep each night equally like a groundhog. It is perfectly normal to slumber less well before or after exciting events.
In short, there are good reasons to stay calm, even if slumber may not come right away.
Rhythm: Stay in time!
After a bad night, many people try to make up for the deficit with a longer nap or early bedtime. Unfortunately, this is wrong. This takes away the necessary "sleep pressure" and makes brooding more likely.
Despite insomnia, the usual bedtimes should be observed. This is the only way to prevent sleep from shifting its rhythm and slowly drifting over into another time zone.
Keep moving!
The quality of sleep is naturally related to the way we organize our day. If you work hard physically all day, you will rarely have thoughts of sleep disorders when you finally sink into bed, exhausted.
Physical activity is a must for anyone who wants to improve their sleep. This doesn't mean sweating for hours in the gym to catch some sleep. The body is modest.
Half an hour to three quarters of an hour of brisk walking or cycling every day is already enough to promote sleep. More is allowed, of course. However, there is one special rule to be observed. Between sport and going to bed there should be a few hours in which you can rest.
Coffee, cappuccino & Co.
People who have slept badly like to drink coffee or tea. The caffeine it contains acts quickly. It unfolds its full effect after 20 minutes. The breakdown takes much longer. Only after an average of 5 hours is the caffeine level reduced by half (half-life). So it happens that the effect of coffee adds up if you drink several cups during the day. Even if you could tolerate another cup, most of the stimulating drug is still circulating in your blood.
The half-life of caffeine varies greatly from person to person. Smokers excrete the Turkish drink fastest. For them, it happens twice as fast as for non-smokers. On the other hand, coffee drinkers need up to 7 hours to get rid of half of the stimulating substance.
These metabolic variants have great significance for sleep. Those who are not naturally bear sleepers should know their "deadline" for the last cup of coffee. For many people, it is around 3 p.m. However, there are sensitive contemporaries for whom the time limit is even earlier.
Since the coffee effect adds up, the quantities play a not insignificant role. Those who consume several cups after lunch in order to awaken their spirits can be punished with insomnia.
Nightcaps and nightcaps
Wine or beer are the most popular sleep aids, as they relax, relieve anxiety and provide wonderful bedtime buoyancy. Those who suffer from insomnia therefore like to drink a few glasses to avoid tossing and turning sleeplessly in bed. Unfortunately, this therapy is at the same time the cause of the disease it is supposed to fight. Alcohol interferes with sleeping through the night and prevents deep sleep. This is especially true of the nightcap just before bedtime. An early morning drink may have other disadvantages, but it does not impair sleep!
Many stubborn sleep disorders can be completely cured with just one measure. The person concerned abstains from alcohol or reduces it to a glass of wine or beer.
Smoking and vaporizing
Cigarettes have a sedative and a stimulating effect. Regarding sleep, it is important to know that a cigarette before falling asleep hinders it. A cigarette during the night is especially unfavorable.
Opulent dinner
Heavy food before going to bed is, of course, not a basis for a restful sleep. This is self-evident. This is especially true of a dinner with plenty of fat or meat. Carbohydrates, on the other hand, promote slumber. With bread, potatoes or spaghetti in the evening it sleeps thus better than with meat and sausage. Incidentally, this fact is also exploited by the "bedtime snack", which dentists are less fond of.
Basically, it is recommended to leave a gap of several hours between the last meal (e.g. 6 to 7 p.m.) and the moment when you turn off the light. For people with sensitive digestive organs, salad in the evening is often poorly tolerated.
Carbohydrates (bread, potatoes, spaghetti) are converted to sugar after a short time. A piece of bread tastes sweet after being chewed for a long time. The resulting sugar is transported into the cells with the help of insulin. But insulin not only ensures that the sugar is removed, most amino acids also leave the bloodstream with it. With the help of these protein building blocks and the sugar, the cells can carry out their many tasks.
However, there are exceptions. One is called tryptophan. This amino acid is so tightly bound to a carrier molecule that it remains in the blood despite the action of insulin. In relation to the other protein building blocks, therefore, its concentration now increases. This fact has an effect in the brain, where tryptophan can now be processed to a greater extent without its troublesome competitors. The end product is called serotonin, that happiness hormone that makes us feel full, satisfied and ready for bed.
Power napping instead of siesta
If you sleep for hours at noon as an adult, you don't need to be surprised about sleep problems. Those who love a siesta should therefore limit it to 15-20 minutes. Such a short nap, lately also referred to as a "power nap," can boost performance and help overcome the midday slump. Meanwhile, there are even companies where employees can retire for such a Mediterranean midday rest.
Beyond retirement age, this time restriction no longer applies. Now an extended nap of one or one and a half hours is also appropriate, as the biorhythm has changed.
(Almost) only sleeping
After all, it can be very cozy to watch TV in bed. However, a stirring movie just before sleep does not promote it at all. The bedroom should be reserved for sleeping and intimate life for two. Working, "computing", eating in bed is not recommended at all for sleep-disturbed people.
Those who toss and turn sleeplessly every night cannot avoid associating even the most pleasant resting place with unpleasant feelings. These associations must be dissolved again.
Therefore, the motto is now: Only to sleep in bed! If sleep does not come after 10-20 minutes, you should get up again and stay awake until your eyes almost fall shut. The same applies to sleep disorders. If you don't find your way back to slumber within a short time, you should get up instead of watching the minutes slowly tick away.
Rhythmizing rituals
Falling asleep does not begin the moment the songs close. A long day includes a "winding down" period that should be as uniform, even boring, as possible. A herbal tea, relaxing body care and pleasant bedtime reading form the part of a ritual that helps to get distance from the excitement of the day. The importance of such a ritual can be seen in children. Without a story with their favorite bear in their arms, sleep is out of the question.
Banish brooding
Life brings difficulties and painful problems. Dealing with them is a task that every person must solve. But there is a time for every task. At three in the night or when falling asleep is not an ideal time for it.
If you have been "avoiding" solving an unpleasant problem all day, don't be surprised if your thoughts then circle around it at night, when our conscious control over the mind begins to wane.
So, in order not to have to deal with all the difficulties in the moonlight, they need a space during the day. "A good conscience, is a gentle resting pillow", in a nutshell the popular saying goes.
But in everyday life, you can not always be so psycho-hygienic. A notepad on the nightstand can help. All thoughts on open topics can be noted down in the evening or at night and then postponed in a relaxed manner until the morning. The mind is then free for more pleasant things.
Now it is extremely difficult to consciously not think about problems. Just try not to think about an elephant with a crosswalk for one minute... Therefore, it is advisable to think specifically about other, relaxing things.
It doesn't have to be sheep. Some people tell themselves a story, others look at pictures in their mind or occupy themselves with pleasant fantasies. Entire novels are said to have been written this way.
To clear the mind, it can be beneficial to review the day after once. "What did I do well? What was less good? What do I still need to get done?" But instead of going through the last 24 hours in the usual morning-to-night order, this time do it backwards. Starting with brushing your teeth, you go step by step until the alarm clock rings in the morning.
Emotionally stressful events are briefly considered and then placed with the things that still need to be done. By the way, many people find this exercise so exhausting that they prefer to fall asleep quickly.
Cool and calm!
We can close our eyes, but not our ears. This simple fact often determines our sleep more than we would like.
Noise is measured in dB (decibels). The hearing threshold is 0 dB. Quiet rustling of leaves corresponds to 20 dB and "room volume" is understood to be 50 dB. Sensitive people already feel disturbed at 30 dB. 50 dB already leads to a measurable stress reaction during sleep.
Ergo, quiet is the top priority for a bedroom. Few people are lucky enough to hear only the chirping of birds at the edge of a forest. Remedies against outside noise can be soundproof windows or earplugs. The latter are available in various designs at pharmacies or can be custom-made by hearing care professionals. These are considerably more expensive, but more comfortable to wear.Noise sources can also be present in the bedroom. Ticking alarm clocks should be removed as soon as possible, as should visible clocks. Not only do they make noise, but they also cause unnecessary glances at the passing time. This is unnecessary stress.
Human noise sources are a bigger problem. With some snoring sounds, sleep is simply unthinkable. A sawing noise of 90 to 120 dB would frighten even a marmot out of sleep. If no remedy is found for this, a second sleeping place is sometimes more conducive to love than persevering in nocturnal Nibelung loyalty.
Bed: Important but also overrated
For a while, the motto in Germany regarding the bed was "praise be to that which makes hard! A board under the mattress was supposed to be healthy.
These times are thankfully over! On the other hand, a bed should not be a soft hammock.
The basic problem of the optimal sleeping surface is the fact that a human being is not built like a column. We have heavy and light body parts, which sink into the mattress to correspondingly different depths.
The bed must do justice to this simple fact. So the right bed is much softer in the head, shoulder and leg area than where the heavy pelvis rests. There are numerous systems of slatted frames and mattresses, which are coordinated with each other in such a way that the optimum lying comfort is achieved.
If you are buying a bed together with your partner, you should bear in mind that a 100-kg man needs a more stable base than a woman who weighs just 50 kg.
A continuous mattress may be more contact-friendly, but it already starts to vibrate when the partner turns to the other side. Separate slatted frames and mattresses provide deeper sleep.
The comforter must be both warm, able to absorb moisture and not be a sweat chamber. Down fulfills these requirements very well. Unfortunately, they are completely unsuitable for allergy sufferers. For them, synthetic blankets are appropriate. Be careful, with some cheap synthetic fibers you sweat easily!
The pillow is more of a neck pillow, which stabilizes the neck. In no case should it be too big (not over 40x80 cm), otherwise the shoulders will come to rest on the pillow as well. If you are unsure, you can also get information from an independent bed consultant.
As important as it is to have a bed in which you feel really comfortable, it is only one of the possible causes of sleep disorders. A certain skepticism about advertising claims made by bed manufacturers is in order.
It certainly doesn't hurt to get a high-tech bed. However, most of the sleep disorders mentioned in this book will not be improved by this purchase, or only insignificantly.
Jakobson, Meditation & Co
It is helpful for many purposes to learn a relaxation method. Progressive muscle relaxation according to Jacobson can be practiced after only a few hours of training. For other methods like autogenic training or yoga you need a bit more practice time. All these methods can be learned at many places (e.g. adult education centers, health insurance companies).
Biofeedback also performs well. Here, muscle tension, skin resistance or even brain waves are measured directly and made visible with the help of a device. In this way, it is possible to directly see the degree of one's own tension and thus influence it more easily.
ENter a first relaxation course, one will not sleep like a baby right away. It takes a few weeks for the newly learned skill to have a positive effect.
Less is more!
If sleep is disturbed for several days or even weeks, the obvious thing to do is to go to bed earlier to make up for the time missed. Unfortunately, this often does not work. On the contrary, anxiety and tension only increase when you tell yourself that you have to go to sleep now. Thus, fear of insomnia and failure to fall asleep easily builds up on each other.
Here a technique has proven itself, which is called sleep limitation (sleep restriction). For two weeks a diary is kept in which the most important key data are recorded. From this, the actual average sleep duration can then be effortlessly calculated. For example, one has spent 8 hours in bed. However, only 5 hours were slept. The three remaining hours were used extensively for brooding.
Since one does not attach importance to the brooding hours, one should give them up. So initially you limit the time in bed to exactly those hours in which you actually sleep, in the example to only 5 hours. Now you determine the time at which you want to get up. Assuming that this would be already in the morning at 6 o'clock, one should therefore turn off the light at 1 o'clock. This sounds shockingly little, but it corresponds to the period of the actual sleep of the last 14 days.
If you now find that you can sleep 85% of the shortened time in the following nights, you may go to bed a full 15 minutes earlier. In subsequent weeks, the times when the light is turned off can be gradually brought forward in 15-minute intervals. In this way, you slowly feel your way to the "right" bedtime. The goal is "85% sleep," but it's okay to lie awake for a bit.
Light, air and sun
We have a fairly accurate internal clock, which unfortunately ticks every 25 hours for most people. In order not to get completely confused with the daily rhythm, it must be constantly reset.
This is not possible by willpower. The clock is constantly brought into line with the 24-hour day by daylight, physical activity, food intake and social contacts.
Bright light is therefore also used therapeutically for sleep disorders, especially when the sleep rhythm is disturbed. An ideal application is jet lag. Here, light in the morning can help to adjust the internal clock more quickly.
But it has been shown that even more forms of sleep disorder respond to this type of therapy. Apparently, our entire day/night rhythm functions more stably when the days are not dim and gloomy, but brilliantly bright. Then, during the day, melatonin release in the brain is completely suppressed, only to kick in all the more violently at night. It is well known that melatonin has a sleep-inducing effect.
Unfortunately, sun-drenched mornings are not all that common. As a substitute for breakfast on the terrace, there are special lamps that imitate sunlight. Spending 30 to 45 minutes in front of one that shines at 10,000 lux has an effect comparable to morning sunbathing. The therapy should last at least two to four weeks.
One side effect: mood improves. This is why this form of treatment, which has no side effects, is also used for winter depression (seasonal affective disorder - SAD).
Psychotherapy
In many forms of sleep disorders, discussions with a psychotherapist can be extremely helpful. This is especially the case when fears or brooding are prominent at night or when conflicts cannot be overcome by one's own efforts.
The same conflicts that occupy us during the day also disturb our night's rest. Especially things come to the surface that we were able to keep well in check when we were awake. But now, when we surrender to sleep, the conflicts, worries and fears resurface in outsized form.
Many people find it difficult to decide to talk to a soul specialist. They feel it is an admission of failure. However, contacting a psychotherapist is not about mental defects, but about how to find a way out of dead ends into which one may have strayed. Getting into dead ends has nothing to do with mental deficiency, it is simply human.
If the diagnosis of sleep disorders shows that psychological causes play a significant role, one should ask the family doctor to recommend a psychotherapist.
There are no specialists for sleep disorders. Therefore one should clarify in one or more preliminary discussions whether and in which form psychotherapeutic discussions are meaningful. Of course, the question of whether one's own soul feels in good hands with the psychotherapist also plays a role. If this is not the case, further preliminary talks with other professionals are necessary and also common.
Self-help
As in many areas of medicine, there are also self-help groups for sleep disorders. Especially people with chronic sleep disorders benefit from the exchange with like-minded sufferers, e.g. obstructive sleep apnea syndrome.
Here one receives not only psychological support, but also medical Tipps.
The findings of modern sleep medicine are also taught in courses. There, in weekly or weekend courses, participants not only receive information on how to sleep better, but also practical instructions on how to learn a relaxation procedure. There is also the opportunity to discuss personal issues with an expert.
Drug therapy
Sleep is a child of freedom, just like love, for example. Neither can be forced. It is one of the paradoxes that the more you wish for sleep, the harder it comes.
This realization is especially difficult for people who are used to solving their life tasks through will, discipline and mastery. For many problems, these qualities are not to be underestimated. For others, however, they are not. Sleep is one of them.
Keep cool!
Oddly enough, the first and most important exercise for a healthy sleep is not to want it badly, let alone to force it!
Knowledge of scientifically well-supported facts helps here. One night without sleep is by no means a disaster. Even several or even many nights without sleep do not lead to health damage.
Also, performance does not decrease significantly after a single sleepless night, since the internal clock switches to "awake" in the morning even without a night's rest. On the contrary, there are even positive effects that are used therapeutically in the treatment of depression. The lack of a good night's rest has a "scratching up", activating effect. This is why some forms of depression are successfully treated with complete sleep deprivation once or twice a week (!).
In a nutshell!
The next step is to throw overboard the belief in old wives' tales. Especially the belief that only long sleep means rest. It is much better to sleep short and well than to toss and turn endlessly in bed! In the same way, going to bed early does not mean falling asleep early. So if you go to bed earlier and earlier because you have trouble falling asleep, in order to find sleep at least after hours, you are not doing yourself any favors. The opposite would be more correct.
Also into the range of the myths belongs the conviction to have to sleep each night equally like a groundhog. It is perfectly normal to slumber less well before or after exciting events.
In short, there are good reasons to stay calm, even if slumber may not come right away.
Rhythm: Stay in time!
After a bad night, many people try to make up for the deficit with a longer nap or early bedtime. Unfortunately, this is wrong. This takes away the necessary "sleep pressure" and makes brooding more likely.
Despite insomnia, the usual bedtimes should be observed. This is the only way to prevent sleep from shifting its rhythm and slowly drifting over into a different time zone.
Keep moving!
The quality of sleep is naturally related to the way we organize our day. If you work hard physically all day, you will rarely have thoughts of sleep disorders when you finally sink into bed exhausted.
Physical activity is a must for anyone who wants to improve their sleep. That doesn't mean sweating for hours in the gym to catch some sleep. The body is modest.
Half an hour to three quarters of an hour of brisk walking or cycling every day is already enough to promote sleep. More is allowed, of course. However, there is one special rule to be observed. Between sport and going to bed there should be a few hours in which you can rest.
Coffee, cappuccino & Co.
People who have slept badly like to drink coffee or tea. The caffeine it contains acts quickly. It unfolds its full effect after 20 minutes. The breakdown takes much longer. Only after an average of 5 hours is the caffeine level reduced by half (half-life). So it happens that the effect of coffee adds up if you drink several cups during the day. Even if you could tolerate another cup, most of the stimulating drug is still circulating in your blood.
The half-life of caffeine varies greatly from person to person. Smokers excrete the Turkish drink fastest. For them, it happens twice as fast as for non-smokers. On the other hand, coffee drinkers need up to 7 hours to get rid of half of the stimulating substance.
These metabolic variants have great significance for sleep. Those who are not naturally bear sleepers should know their "deadline" for the last cup of coffee. For many people, it is around 3 p.m. However, there are sensitive contemporaries for whom the time limit is even earlier.
Since the coffee effect adds up, the quantities play a not insignificant role. Those who consume several cups after lunch in order to awaken their spirits can be punished with insomnia.
Nightcaps and nightcaps
Wine or beer are the most popular sleep aids, as they relax, relieve anxiety and provide wonderful bedtime buoyancy. Those who suffer from insomnia therefore like to drink a few glasses to avoid tossing and turning sleeplessly in bed. Unfortunately, this therapy is at the same time the cause of the disease it is supposed to fight. Alcohol interferes with sleeping through the night and prevents deep sleep. This is especially true of the nightcap just before bedtime. An early morning drink may have other disadvantages, but it does not impair sleep!
Many stubborn sleep disorders can be completely cured with just one measure. The person concerned abstains from alcohol or reduces it to a glass of wine or beer.
Smoking and vaporizing
Cigarettes have a sedative and a stimulating effect. Regarding sleep, it is important to know that a cigarette before falling asleep hinders it. A cigarette during the night is especially unfavorable.
Opulent dinner
Heavy food before going to bed is, of course, not a basis for a restful sleep. This is self-evident. This is especially true of a dinner with plenty of fat or meat. Carbohydrates, on the other hand, promote slumber. With bread, potatoes or spaghetti in the evening it sleeps thus better than with meat and sausage. Incidentally, this fact is also exploited by the "bedtime snack", which dentists are less fond of.
Basically, it is recommended to leave a gap of several hours between the last meal (e.g. 6 to 7 p.m.) and the moment when you turn off the light. For people with sensitive digestive organs, salad in the evening is often poorly tolerated.
Carbohydrates (bread, potatoes, spaghetti) are converted to sugar after a short time. A piece of bread tastes sweet after being chewed for a long time. The resulting sugar is transported into the cells with the help of insulin. But insulin not only ensures that the sugar is removed, most amino acids also leave the bloodstream with it. With the help of these protein building blocks and the sugar, the cells can carry out their many tasks.
However, there are exceptions. One is called tryptophan. This amino acid is so tightly bound to a carrier molecule that it remains in the blood despite the action of insulin. In relation to the other protein building blocks, therefore, its concentration now increases. This fact has an effect in the brain, where tryptophan can now be processed to a greater extent without its troublesome competitors. The end product is called serotonin, that happiness hormone that makes us feel full, satisfied and ready for bed.
Power napping instead of siesta
If you sleep for hours at noon as an adult, you don't need to be surprised about sleep problems. Those who love a siesta should therefore limit it to 15-20 minutes. Such a short nap, lately also referred to as a "power nap," can boost performance and help overcome the midday slump. Meanwhile, there are even companies where employees can retire for such a Mediterranean midday rest.
Beyond retirement age, this time restriction no longer applies. Now an extended nap of one or one and a half hours is also appropriate, as the biorhythm has changed.
(Almost) only sleeping
After all, it can be very cozy to watch TV in bed. However, a stirring movie just before sleep does not promote it at all. The bedroom should be reserved for sleeping and intimate life for two. Working, "computing", eating in bed is not recommended at all for sleep-disturbed people.
Those who toss and turn sleeplessly every night cannot avoid associating even the most pleasant resting place with unpleasant feelings. These associations must be dissolved again.
Therefore, the motto is now: Only to sleep in bed! If sleep does not come after 10-20 minutes, you should get up again and stay awake until your eyes almost fall shut. The same applies to sleep disorders. If you don't find your way back to slumber within a short time, you should get up instead of watching the minutes slowly tick away.
Rhythmizing rituals
Falling asleep does not begin the moment the songs close. A long day includes a "winding down" period that should be as uniform, even boring, as possible. A herbal tea, relaxing body care and pleasant bedtime reading form the part of a ritual that helps to get distance from the excitement of the day. The importance of such a ritual can be seen in children. Without a story with their favorite bear in their arms, sleep is out of the question.
Banish brooding
Life brings difficulties and painful problems. Dealing with them is a task that every person must solve. But there is a time for every task. At three in the night or when falling asleep is not an ideal time for it.
If you have been "avoiding" solving an unpleasant problem all day, don't be surprised if your thoughts then circle around it at night, when our conscious control over the mind begins to wane.
So, in order not to have to deal with all the difficulties in the moonlight, they need a space during the day. "A good conscience, is a gentle resting pillow", in a nutshell the popular saying goes.
But in everyday life, you can not always be so psycho-hygienic. A notepad on the bedside table can help. All thoughts on open topics can be noted down in the evening or at night and then postponed in a relaxed manner until the morning. The mind is then free for more pleasant things.
Now it is extremely difficult to consciously not think about problems. Just try not to think about an elephant with a crosswalk for one minute... Therefore, it is advisable to think specifically about other, relaxing things.
It doesn't have to be sheep. Some people tell themselves a story, others look at pictures in their mind or occupy themselves with pleasant fantasies. Entire novels are said to have been written this way.
To clear the mind, it can be beneficial to review the day after once. "What did I do well? What was less good? What do I still need to get done?" But instead of going through the last 24 hours in the usual morning-to-night order, this time do it backwards. Starting with brushing your teeth, you go step by step until the alarm clock rings in the morning.
Emotionally stressful events are briefly considered and then placed with the things that still need to be done. By the way, many people find this exercise so exhausting that they prefer to fall asleep quickly.
Cool and calm!
We can close our eyes, but not our ears. This simple fact often determines our sleep more than we would like.
Noise is measured in dB (decibels). The hearing threshold is 0 dB. Quiet rustling of leaves corresponds to 20 dB and "room volume" is understood to be 50 dB. Sensitive people already feel disturbed at 30 dB. 50 dB already leads to a measurable stress reaction during sleep.
Ergo, quiet is the top priority for a bedroom. Few people are lucky enough to hear only the chirping of birds at the edge of a forest. Remedies against outside noise can be soundproof windows or earplugs. The latter are available in various designs at pharmacies or can be custom-made by hearing care professionals. These are considerably more expensive, but more comfortable to wear.Noise sources can also be present in the bedroom. Ticking alarm clocks should be removed as soon as possible, as should visible clocks. Not only do they make noise, but they also cause unnecessary glances at the passing time. This is unnecessary stress.
Human noise sources are a bigger problem. With some snoring sounds, sleep is simply unthinkable. A sawing noise of 90 to 120 dB would frighten even a marmot out of sleep. If no remedy is found for this, a second sleeping place is sometimes more conducive to love than persevering in nocturnal Nibelung loyalty.
Bed: Important but also overrated
For a while, the motto in Germany regarding the bed was "praise be to that which makes hard! A board under the mattress was supposed to be healthy.
These times are thankfully over! On the other hand, a bed should not be a soft hammock.
The basic problem of the optimal sleeping surface is the fact that a human being is not built like a column. We have heavy and light body parts, which sink into the mattress to different depths accordingly.
The bed must do justice to this simple fact. So the right bed is much softer in the head, shoulder and leg area than where the heavy pelvis rests. There are numerous systems of slatted frames and mattresses, which are coordinated with each other in such a way that the optimum lying comfort is achieved.
If you are buying a bed together with your partner, you should bear in mind that a 100-kg man needs a more stable base than a woman who weighs just 50 kg.
A continuous mattress may be more contact-friendly, but it already starts to vibrate when the partner turns to the other side. Separate slatted frames and mattresses provide deeper sleep.
The comforter must be both warm, able to absorb moisture and not be a sweat chamber. Down fulfills these requirements very well. Unfortunately, they are completely unsuitable for allergy sufferers. For them, synthetic blankets are appropriate. Be careful, with some cheap synthetic fibers you sweat easily!
The pillow is more of a neck pillow, which stabilizes the neck. In no case should it be too big (not over 40x80 cm), otherwise the shoulders will come to rest on the pillow as well. If you are unsure, you can also get information from an independent bed consultant.
As important as it is to have a bed in which you feel really comfortable, it is only one of the possible causes of sleep disorders. A certain skepticism about advertising claims made by bed manufacturers is in order.
It certainly doesn't hurt to get a high-tech bed. However, most of the sleep disorders mentioned in this book will not be improved by this purchase, or only insignificantly.
Jakobson, Meditation & Co
It is helpful for many purposes to learn a relaxation method. Progressive muscle relaxation according to Jacobson can be practiced after only a few hours of training. For other methods like autogenic training or yoga you need a little more practice time. All these methods can be learned at many places (e.g. adult education centers, health insurance companies).
Biofeedback also performs well. Here, muscle tension, skin resistance or even brain waves are measured directly and made visible with the help of a device. In this way, it is possible to directly see the degree of one's own tension and thus influence it more easily.
ENter a first relaxation course, one will not sleep like a baby right away. It takes a few weeks for the newly learned skill to have a positive effect.
Less is more!
If sleep is disturbed for several days or even weeks, the obvious thing to do is to go to bed earlier to make up for the time missed. Unfortunately, this often does not work. On the contrary, anxiety and tension only increase when you tell yourself that you have to go to sleep now. Thus, fear of insomnia and failure to fall asleep easily builds up on each other.
Here a technique has proven itself, which is called sleep limitation (sleep restriction). For two weeks a diary is kept in which the most important key data are recorded. From this, the actual average sleep duration can then be effortlessly calculated. For example, one has spent 8 hours in bed. However, only 5 hours were slept. The three remaining hours were used extensively for brooding.
Since one does not attach importance to the brooding hours, one should give them up. So initially you limit the time in bed to exactly those hours in which you actually sleep, in the example to only 5 hours. Now you determine the time at which you want to get up. Assuming that this would be already in the morning at 6 o'clock, one should therefore turn off the light at 1 o'clock. This sounds shockingly little, but it corresponds to the period of the actual sleep of the last 14 days.
If you now find that you can sleep 85% of the shortened time in the following nights, you may go to bed a full 15 minutes earlier. In subsequent weeks, the times when the light is turned off can be gradually brought forward in 15-minute intervals. In this way, you slowly feel your way to the "right" bedtime. The goal is "85% sleep," but it's okay to lie awake for a bit.
Light, air and sun
We have a fairly accurate internal clock, which unfortunately ticks every 25 hours for most people. In order not to get completely confused with the daily rhythm, it must be constantly reset.
This is not possible by willpower. The clock is constantly brought into line with the 24-hour day by daylight, physical activity, food intake and social contacts.
Bright light is therefore also used therapeutically for sleep disorders, especially when the sleep rhythm is disturbed. An ideal application is jet lag. Here, light in the morning can help to adjust the internal clock more quickly.
But it has been shown that even more forms of sleep disorder respond to this type of therapy. Apparently, our entire day/night rhythm functions more stably when the days are not dim and gloomy, but brilliantly bright. Then, during the day, melatonin release in the brain is completely suppressed, only to kick in all the more violently at night. It is well known that melatonin has a sleep-inducing effect.
Unfortunately, sun-drenched mornings are not all that common. As a substitute for breakfast on the terrace, there are special lamps that imitate sunlight. Spending 30 to 45 minutes in front of one that shines at 10,000 lux has an effect comparable to morning sunbathing. The therapy should last at least two to four weeks.
One side effect: mood improves. This is why this form of treatment, which has no side effects, is also used for winter depression (seasonal affective disorder - SAD).
Psychotherapy
In many forms of sleep disorders, discussions with a psychotherapist can be extremely helpful. This is especially the case when fears or brooding are prominent at night or when conflicts cannot be overcome by one's own efforts.
The same conflicts that occupy us during the day also disturb our night's rest. Especially things come to the surface that we were able to keep well in check when we were awake. But now, when we surrender to sleep, the conflicts, worries and fears resurface in outsized form.
Many people find it difficult to decide to talk to a soul specialist. They feel it is an admission of failure. However, contacting a psychotherapist is not about mental defects, but about how to find a way out of dead ends into which one may have strayed. Getting into dead ends has nothing to do with mental deficiency, it is simply human.
If the diagnosis of sleep disorders shows that psychological causes play a significant role, one should ask the family doctor to recommend a psychotherapist.
There are no specialists for sleep disorders. Therefore one should clarify in one or more preliminary discussions whether and in which form psychotherapeutic discussions are meaningful. Of course, the question of whether one's own soul feels in good hands with the psychotherapist also plays a role here. If this is not the case, further preliminary talks with other professionals are necessary and also common.
Self-help
As in many areas of medicine, there are also self-help groups for sleep disorders. Especially people with chronic sleep disorders benefit from the exchange with like-minded sufferers, e.g. obstructive sleep apnea syndrome.
Here one receives not only psychological support, but also medical Tipps.
The findings of modern sleep medicine are also taught in courses. There, in weekly or weekend courses, participants not only receive information on how to sleep better, but also practical instructions on how to learn a relaxation procedure. There is also the opportunity to discuss personal issues with an expert.